Ornithostoma

Name: Ornithostoma ‭(‬Bird mouth‭)‬.
Phonetic: Or-nif-oh-sto-mah.
Named By: Harry Govier Seeley‭ ‬-‭ ‬1871.
Synonyms: Ornithostoma seeleyi.
Classification: Chordata,‭ ‬Reptilia,‭ ‬Pterosauria,‭ ‬Pterodactyloidea,‭ ‬Pteranodontidae.
Species: O.‭ ‬sedgwicki‭ (‬type‭)‬.
Type: Piscivore.
Size: Uncertain.
Known locations: England‭ ‬-‭ ‬Cambridge Greensand.
Time period: Early Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Numerous remains,‭ ‬although often in a state of poor preservation.

       Ornithostoma was once considered to identical to Pteranodon,‭ ‬although modern thinking has it recognised as its own genus.‭ ‬Unfortunately Ornithostoma has suffered from the wastebasket effect with numerous poorly preserved remains being attributed to it.
       Although not much is known for certain,‭ ‬the toothless beak of Ornithostoma likely indicates a fish eating piscivorous lifestyle.‭ ‬This notion is reinforced by the fact the‭ ‬Cambridge Greensand is a marine deposit.

Further reading
- Additional evidence on the structure of the head in ornithosaurs from the Cambridge Upper Greensand; being a supplement to "The Ornithosauria". - Annals and Magazine of Natural History 7:20-36. - H. G. Seeley - 1871.
- Ornithostoma sedgwicki – valid taxon of azhdarchoid pterosaurs. - Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS, 316(1): 40–49. - A. O. Averianov - 2012.
- Edentulous pterosaurs from the Cambridge Greensand (Cretaceous) of eastern England with a review of Ornithostoma Seeley, 1871. - Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. - Roy E. Smith, David M. Martill, David M. Unwin & Lorna Steel - 2020.



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